Chapter 53: LED Sunflower Lamp
When Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe returned to their resting area, Zheng Jiahe was playing a Plants-versus-Zombies–style game on his phone. Cheng Qi was sitting beside him watching, chatting with him from time to time; the two seemed to be getting along quite well.
“Little Zhe! You’re back?! I just happen to have something to talk to you about!”
As soon as Zheng Jiahe spotted Su Ruizhe, he immediately sprang to his feet in excitement and grabbed him, pulling him toward the outside.
Su Ruizhe was dragged along helplessly, amused as he asked, “What’s going on? Why are you so excited?”
Zheng Jiahe didn’t stop until he had pulled Su Ruizhe into an empty corridor. Then he held up his phone like a prized treasure in front of him, opened the game interface, and tapped into the plant encyclopedia.
“Look! I was just playing this game. There are so many kinds of attack-type plants in it. This is the same game you used to play, right?”
Seeing the familiar interface, Su Ruizhe couldn’t help but nod slightly. “That’s right. This is the one I used to play.”
This novel game had left a very deep impression on Su Ruizhe. He felt that the uncanny effects of his ability might indeed be related to this game.
“I suddenly had an idea just now, and I wanted to check it with you.”
“What idea?” Su Ruizhe was intrigued as well. He genuinely admired the sky-high leaps of imagination that Zheng Jiahe, a true homebody, could produce at any moment.
“Let’s try following the plants listed here and see whether you can make use of all of them.”
“Alright.” Su Ruizhe agreed readily; he also wanted to gain better control over how to use his ability.
“Let’s try bananas first.” Zheng Jiahe pointed at the Banana Rocket Launcher in the plant encyclopedia.
Following his suggestion, Su Ruizhe took a banana out of his spatial storage, held it in his left hand, and activated his ability—but there was no reaction at all. He tried again and again, yet still nothing happened.
Zheng Jiahe, however, showed no sign of disappointment. He pointed instead to the Electric Blueberry in the plant encyclopedia. “Try this blueberry next.”
Su Ruizhe put the banana back into his space and took out a few blueberries, again holding them in his left hand. Even after activating his ability, there was still no response.
“How about trying a pineapple?”
According to the plant encyclopedia, the spinning pineapple could block zombies from advancing and even deflect bullets by spinning itself. Zheng Jiahe was very curious what a weaponized pineapple might turn into.
But the result was still extremely disappointing… Su Ruizhe’s ability conversion failed once again…
If Su Ruizhe hadn’t just used his ability in front of Commander Zhang to turn chili peppers into grenades, he might have thought his power had malfunctioned.
“It’s fine, let’s try corn next!” Zheng Jiahe showed not the slightest sign of discouragement. On the contrary, he pointed at the Corn Shooter in the plant encyclopedia with even greater excitement.
After three consecutive failed conversions, Su Ruizhe honestly didn’t have much confidence in this fourth attempt. However, to his surprise, this time it actually succeeded—and it was a huge success. Under the effect of his ability, the ear of corn in his hand transformed into a large pile of yellow corn bullets and an enormous yellow grenade warhead.
“Wow! That’s amazing, my Little Zhe!”
Zheng Jiahe excitedly slapped Su Ruizhe on the shoulder. Because he was too worked up and didn’t control his strength, he smacked him straight to the ground.
Su Ruizhe: ……
Good thing Su Ruizhe hugged the grenade warhead tightly—otherwise, if it had fallen to the ground and exploded, that would’ve been quite something…
“Sorry, sorry… I got too excited…” Zheng Jiahe hurriedly pulled him back up from the floor. “I’ve figured it out! I know why some plants can be turned into weapons and some can’t!”
“Why?”
“Look at this plant encyclopedia. These plants are divided into different tiers based on rarity. Potatoes, peas, and Grave Buster vines are all Tier-1 plants. Corn, cherries, and chili peppers are Tier-2 plants. Pineapple is Tier-3, blueberries are Tier-4, and bananas are Tier-5. I think it’s because your ability level isn’t high enough, so you can’t convert these higher-tier plants yet.”
Hearing this, Su Ruizhe nodded repeatedly in agreement. He felt that what Zheng Jiahe said made a lot of sense.
What Zheng Jiahe didn’t know, however, was that Su Ruizhe had been reborn. His ability level wasn’t actually Tier-1, but Tier-3. When his ability had been only Tier-1, he could do nothing more than farm, making plants grow faster. His ability level had risen to Tier-3 only after he went to the L City Base, with help from the research institute. It was also then that he discovered his power to weaponize plants.
This aligned perfectly with Zheng Jiahe’s theory. At Tier-1, he couldn’t weaponize any plants at all. At Tier-2, he could convert Tier-1 plants. At Tier-3, he could convert Tier-2 plants, and so on. In the near future, he should also be able to successfully weaponize even higher-tier plants.
Just thinking about the functions and skills of those high-level plants in the encyclopedia made his heart burn with excitement.
At that moment, they heard footsteps approaching. Su Ruizhe quickly put the corn bullets and the grenade warhead back into his spatial storage, then chatted casually with Zheng Jiahe as if nothing had happened.
A few survivors passed by—they were heading to the restroom and didn’t notice the two of them standing in the corridor.
After they left, Zheng Jiahe asked Su Ruizhe, “Do you have any sunflowers in your space?”
Su Ruizhe froze for a moment. There were many plants in his space, but he had no clear impression of sunflowers and wasn’t sure whether he had any.
“I’ll go check inside my space. Cover for me for a bit.”
“Okay.”
The two went to the men’s restroom. Su Ruizhe entered a stall and closed the door, while Zheng Jiahe stood guard outside, occasionally pretending to chat with the person inside and urging things along with remarks like, “Why is it taking so long?”
It didn’t take Su Ruizhe long to come out of the stall, though his expression was somewhat strange.
“What, none?” Zheng Jiahe asked in surprise when he saw his empty hands.
Su Ruizhe shook his head. “Let’s talk outside.”
They returned to the empty corridor, and a yellow handheld LED lamp suddenly appeared in Su Ruizhe’s hand.
“Huh? What’s that thing?”
“This is what the sunflower turned into…” Su Ruizhe was at a loss for words himself. After much effort, he had found a few sunflowers deep in the valley. With a try-it-and-see mentality, he had converted them—only for the sunflower that provided sunlight in the game to turn into a lamp.
Zheng Jiahe’s mouth twitched twice. What happened to the powerful weapon they were promised…?
The two stood there in silence for a moment. Finally, Zheng Jiahe tried to console himself. “Well… it’s actually not that bad. At least it can save some electricity…”
Su Ruizhe curled his lips and pressed the switch on the LED lamp. A soft, warm glow shone out—not particularly bright, but it made people feel comfortably warm all over.
The two of them narrowed their eyes slightly, enjoying the sense of ease spreading through their bodies.
“Eh?!”
Suddenly, Zheng Jiahe cried out.
“What is it?” Su Ruizhe looked at him in confusion.
“Look at my leg.” Zheng Jiahe bent down and rolled up his pant leg.
“What’s wrong with your leg?” Su Ruizhe stared at it for a while but couldn’t see anything unusual.
“Did you forget? This leg of mine was bitten by a zombie before. I don’t know if it’s because I awakened an ability, but my recovery seems to have improved—the wound had basically healed, though it still hurt a bit when I put force on it. But now it doesn’t hurt at all!” Zheng Jiahe said excitedly. “Look! It’s completely scabbed over!”
“You mean…?” Su Ruizhe froze.
“Amazing!!! My Little Zhe!!! This lamp of yours is no ordinary lamp!!!”
Lowering his voice and glancing around, Zheng Jiahe continued, “Your sunflower lamp has healing effects!”
“Hahaha! Come on, come on! Let’s hurry and tell Brother Zhan the good news!”
As he spoke, Zheng Jiahe once again dragged Su Ruizhe off at full speed.
Seeing Su Ruizhe and Zheng Jiahe rush back with barely concealed excitement on their faces, Zhan Yun raised an eyebrow slightly. “What’s going on?”
The two of them quickly lowered their voices and told Zhan Yun about the discoveries they had just made through their experiments. Su Ruizhe quietly took the corn bullets, the grenade warhead, and the LED sunflower lamp out of his spatial storage.
“Really?” After hearing their account, even Zhan Yun couldn’t help but feel excited.
Cheng Qi, on the other hand, looked utterly shocked. Earlier, he and Zhan Yun had been talking about his experiences over the past ten-odd days in A City, and he hadn’t yet had the chance to learn about Su Ruizhe’s unusual ability. Now, seeing Su Ruizhe conjure items out of thin air—each with such strange designs—left him deeply astonished.
Zhan Yun knew his childhood friend very well and had no intention of hiding anything from him. Their earlier reunion had been too rushed for proper introductions, so Zhan Yun briefly introduced each member of the team. When he got to Su Ruizhe, he emphasized in particular that Su Ruizhe was his lover, telling Cheng Qi to be mindful of that.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk—an old bull eating tender grass,” Cheng Qi said, shaking his head exaggeratedly.
Zhan Yun couldn’t be bothered to deal with him. He took the LED sunflower lamp and shone it on Cheng Jiao. Under the warm light, Cheng Jiao’s complexion visibly improved. Her tightly furrowed brows finally relaxed, and the wound that had been oozing blood stopped bleeding.
It really worked!
Although Zhang Shuoliang’s ribs and Wu Jing’s arm had already been treated by Song Chengshu, they still ached faintly. Now, under the effect of the LED sunflower lamp, both of them clearly felt the pain easing. However, the LED lamp couldn’t be used indefinitely. As it was treating Zhang Shuoliang and Wu Jing, the warm glow gradually dimmed until it could no longer be turned on.
It was probably because the plant’s own energy had been completely used up. Even so, the effect was more than enough to delight them. From now on, if anyone else was injured, they would be able to provide treatment right away.
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
